Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reiterated his support for Luis Diaz after the forward scored a stoppage-time equaliser which snatched a 1-1 draw at Luton.
Diaz missed Liverpool's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last weekend after returning to Colombia following news that his parents had been kidnapped, but he returned to training this week and came off the bench to earn the Reds a point at Kenilworth Road.
The forward’s mother has been released but he is still waiting for news on his father. After scoring, Diaz lifted up his shirt to reveal a white T-shirt which read 'libertad para papa’ – ‘freedom for my father’.
Liverpool boss Klopp lauded the player after his header looped over Hatters goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski to cancel out Tahith Chong’s earlier strike.
"It’s wonderful, it’s emotional and it’s fantastic," Klopp said.
"We wanted to give him the chance to be a little bit distracted from things. He cannot do anything, he’s waiting all the time and so he trained a few times and he was in a good mood, which is good.
"The signs from Colombia are positive and optimistic but not the one thing we want to hear.
"He brings the quality with the 15-20 minutes he played.
"I think not many people (can) imagine what he has going on now – even us, we are close to him of course, we are supporting him, we feel his pain, but for him it is a different level.
"Football sometimes in dark moments can bring joy to people, can bring joy to somebody who is struggling, and I think football is bringing a slice of joy to him at this time.
"We are together with him, for whatever he needs. He came, trained, came to the game, scored a fantastic goal for us that was really important and we are with him 100%."
The hosts stifled Liverpool in the first half.
And German boss Klopp highlighted his frustration with a lack of counter-pressing which he felt was "personal".
He added: "What I didn’t like was that in the first half we had no counter-pressing. That’s something I take personally and I’ve told the boys that’s really not OK.
"I told them at half-time to be patient and that if they could add counter-pressing into the play then that would be really helpful."
Luton almost played the perfect game, only to concede late on.
"My overriding feeling is pride" - Rob Edwards
And manager Rob Edwards felt pride at full-time after his team’s efforts gave them an important point in their survival bid.
"My overriding feeling is pride," Edwards said. "Of course we wanted to win the game but maybe they would have felt hard done by if we had won that.
"We had a plan and the players committed to it and we got close. The feeling is pride.
"The players gave everything."
Meanwhile, Klopp said fans who directed chants at Liverpool supporters that indirectly referenced the Hillsborough disaster during his team's game at Luton should be ashamed.
The taunts were sung by some home fans during the second half of the 1-1 Premier League draw at Kenilworth Road.
Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher also condemned the chants, saying: "We’re better than that."
Liverpool manager Klopp has previously spoken out against so-called 'tragedy chanting’ between rival supporters and in July the Football Association issued a new charter outlining rules for dealing with the problem.
It followed the arrest of a Manchester United supporter at last season’s FA Cup final for wearing a shirt that mocked the victims of Hillsborough.
After the Luton match, Klopp said he did not hear the chanting, which occurred while the game was still goalless shortly after half-time, but added: "Shame on everyone who said it."
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said: "At the start of the season I was involved in something with supporters coming together about tragedy chanting.
"I’ve just heard that a couple of times in this game. As supporters you’ve got to have rivalry, there is no doubt. But we’re better than that.
"It’s happened two or three times in the game. All clubs have been guilty of that over the years at different times.
"But the world we live in right now, I think we’re better than that."
